Difference between revisions of "Faux Genders"
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| class="nogender" rowspan="2" | | | class="nogender" rowspan="2" | | ||
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| − | | class="fem" rowspan="2" | la fleur | + | | class="fem" rowspan="2" | la fleur<ref name=''fleur''>Many abstract words with the accusative singular in ''-orem'' became feminine in French (e.g., ''dolor (masc)'' > ''douleur (fem)''). The nonabstract 'flower' supposedly followed suit, according to historical grammars, which appeal to analogy and abstractness. Polinsky and Van Everbroek suggest that a better explanation would be analogy to nonabstract feminine nouns in ''-orem'' that occur with high frequency, e.g., ''suror'' 'sister', and ''uxor'' 'spouse' (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, <u>Language</u>, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).</ref> |
| class="fem" rowspan="2"| la flieur | | class="fem" rowspan="2"| la flieur | ||
| class="fem" rowspan="2" | la flleur | | class="fem" rowspan="2" | la flleur | ||
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| class="nogender" rowspan="2" | | | class="nogender" rowspan="2" | | ||
| class="nogender" rowspan="2" | | | class="nogender" rowspan="2" | | ||
| − | | class="masc" rowspan="2" | l'arbre (''masc'')<ref name=''arbre''>According to Polinsky & Van Everbroek, the traditional view of the development of <i>l'arbre (masc)</i> is the following: when tree names in Latin (which were feminine and ended in ''-us'') became masculine nouns due to their similarities with second declension masculine nouns, Old French ''arbor'' became masculine by analogy. The authors, however, believe that a more plausible explanation would be that ''arbor'' became masculine around the same time that many Latin nouns in ''-orem'' became masculine in early Old French. However, the majority of such nouns started as neuter in Latin. For example, <i>Lat. cor > OFr. coeur</i> 'heart' (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, <u>Language</u>, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).</ref> | + | | class="masc" rowspan="2" | l'arbre (''masc'')<ref name=''arbre''>According to Polinsky & Van Everbroek, the traditional view of the development of <i>l'arbre (masc)</i> is the following: when tree names in Latin (which were feminine and ended in ''-us'') became masculine nouns due to their similarities with second declension masculine nouns, Old French ''arbor'' became masculine by analogy. The authors, however, believe that a more plausible explanation would be that ''arbor'' became masculine around the same time that many nonabstract Latin nouns in ''-orem'' became masculine in early Old French. However, the majority of such nouns started as neuter in Latin. For example, <i>Lat. cor > OFr. coeur</i> 'heart' (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, <u>Language</u>, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).</ref> |
| class="masc" rowspan="2" | l'arbre (''masc''); l'bouais | | class="masc" rowspan="2" | l'arbre (''masc''); l'bouais | ||
| class="masc" rowspan="2" | l'âbre (''masc'') | | class="masc" rowspan="2" | l'âbre (''masc'') | ||
Revision as of 20:36, 19 January 2008
Faux Genders is a perhaps misleading term referring to cognates in the Romance languages which are not consistent in grammatical gender (noun class) from one language to the next.
Following is a collection of some examples of these.
History
This project was originally started as a random exercise, with the following explanation:
Spanish and French, both being Romance languages, have a gender attribute to their nouns. Also, being related, many words have the same origin. These are called cognates. In French, cognates that don't have the same meaning as their source are called faux amis. Having studied French before Spanish, and not ever having been good at remembering what gender a given noun was in French, I found it convenient to rely on Spanish when I needed a noun's gender, since remembering a noun's gender in Spanish is as simple as learning only a few rules and a handful of exceptions. However, it turns out that not all French-Spanish cognates have the same gender, though probably well over 90% do.[1]
Here's a small compilation of exceptions that Jonathan North Washington, Hannah Beth Washington, George Martin Fell Brown, and Michael-Forest Meservy have been able to collect.
This data is now being collected for Hannah's B.A. thesis.
The Chart
| English | Latin | Romanian | Portuguese | Galician | Spanish | Catalan | Occitan | French | Jèrriais | Cotentinais | Romansh | Italian | Sardinian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First declension | |||||||||||||
| edge, border | ora, orae (1f) | a orla | la orla | l'orlo (masc) | oru | ||||||||
| Second declension | |||||||||||||
| nose | nasus, nasi (2m) | o nariz | o nariz | la nariz | le nez | l'nez | il nas | il naso | nasu | ||||
| journey, voyage | viaticus, viatici (2m) | a viagem | a viaxe | el viaje | el viatge | le voyage | il viaggio | ||||||
| glass | vitrum, vitri (2n) | o vidro | o vidro | el vidrio | le verre | l'vèrre | il vaider | il vetro | bidru | ||||
| la vitre | l'vitre | vetru | |||||||||||
| Third declension | |||||||||||||
| ear | auris, auris (3f) | ureche (fem) | a orelha | a orella | la oreja | l'oreille (fem) | l'orecchio (masc)[2] | orija | |||||
| auricula, auriculae (1f) | le orecchie | ||||||||||||
| flower | flos, floris (3m) | floare (fem) | a flor | a flor | la flor | la fleur[3] | la flieur | la flleur | la flur | il fiore | flore | ||
| înflorire (fem) | fiore | ||||||||||||
| colour | color, coloris (3m) | culoare (fem) | a cor | a cor | el color[4] | el color[5] | la couleur | la couleu | la couoleu | la colur | il colore | colore | |
| colorit (neut) | la color | ||||||||||||
| pain | dolor, doloris (3m) | durere (fem) | a dor | a dor | el dolor | el dolore[5] | la douleur | il dolore | dolore | ||||
| la dolore | |||||||||||||
| bridge | pons, pontis (3m) | punte (fem) | a ponte | a ponte | el puente | el pǫnt | le pont | la punt | il ponte | ponte | |||
| ponton; pod (neut.) | ponti | ||||||||||||
| inch | pollex, pollicis (3m) | a polegada | a polgada | la pulgada | le pouce | il polesch | il pollice | poddighe (mannu) | |||||
| blood | sanguis, sanguinis (3m) | sînge ("masc") | o sangue | o sangue | la sangre | sang (fem) | le sang | l'sang | il sang | il sangue | sanguni | ||
| sang (masc) | sambene | ||||||||||||
| salt | sal, salis (3m) | sare (fem) | o sal | o sal | la sal[6] | la sal | le sel | il sal | il sale | sale | |||
| labor, task, ploughing | labor, laboris (3m) | o lavouro | o labor | la labor | le labeur | il lavoro | |||||||
| le labour | |||||||||||||
| dust, powder | pulvis, pulveris (3m) | pulbere (fem) | a poeira | a poeira | el polvo | la pols | la poussière | la polvere | piuere | ||||
| la poudre | |||||||||||||
| end | finis, finis (3m, i-stem) | o fim | o fin | el fin | la fin | la fin | la fine | fine | |||||
| il fine | finis | ||||||||||||
| sweat | sudor, sudoris (3m) | sudoare fem) | o suor | o suor | el sudor | el suor[5] | la sueur | il sudore | suore | ||||
| la suor | la suée | ||||||||||||
| warmth, heat | calor, caloris (3m) | căldură fem) | o calor | o calor | el calor[4] | el calor[5] | la chaleur | il calore | il calore | ||||
| la calor | |||||||||||||
| tree | arbor, arboris (3f) | a árvore | a árbore | el árbol[7] | l'arbre (masc)[8] | l'arbre (masc); l'bouais | l'âbre (masc) | l'albero (masc) | arvere | ||||
| a(l/r)bure | |||||||||||||
| art | ars, artis (3f) | a arte | a arte | el arte | l'art (masc) | l'art (masc) | l'art (masc) | l'arte (fem) | arte | ||||
| las artes | |||||||||||||
| custom | consuetudo, consuetudinis (3f) | o costume | o costume | la costumbre | la coutume | il costume | costumene | ||||||
| origin | origo, originis (3f) | origine (fem) | a origem | a orixe | el origen[9] | l'origine (fem) | l'origine (fem) | origine | |||||
| hail | grando, grandinis (3f) | o granizo | el granizo | la grêle | la granella | la grandine | |||||||
| milk | lac, lactis (3n) | lapte (neut) | o leite | o leite | la leche | llet | lach | le lait | l'lait | il latg | il latte | latte | |
| sea | mar, maris (3n) | mare (fem) | o mar | o mar | el mar | la mer | la mé | la mé | la mar | il mare | mare | ||
| honey | mel, mellis (3n) | miere (fem) | o mel | o mel | la miel | el mel | le miel | il miele | miele | ||||
| la mel | |||||||||||||
| Fourth declension | |||||||||||||
| Fifth declension | |||||||||||||
| ice | glacies, glaciei (5f) | o gelo | o xeo | el hielo | la glace | il glatsch | il ghiaccio | ghiacciu | |||||
| landscape | a paisagem | a paisaxe | el paisaje | le paysage | il paesaggio | paesaggiu | |||||||
| cloud | nubes, nubis (?f) | a nuvem | a nube | la nube | le nuage | l'nouage | la nuaée | il nivel | la nuvola | nue | |||
| valley | valles, vallis (?f) | o vale | o val | el valle[10] | la vall | la vallée | la vallée | la val | la valle | badde | |||
| valli | |||||||||||||
| flag | a bandeira | a bandeira | la bandera | le drapeau | la couleu | la couoleu | la bandiera | ||||||
| spider | a aranha | a araña | la araña | l'araignée (fem) | l'pêtre | il ragno | |||||||
| Neologisms | |||||||||||||
| make-up | a maquiagem | el maquillaje | le maquillage | ||||||||||
| garage | garaj (neut) | a garagem | o garaxe | el garaje | el garatge | le garage | la garascha | ||||||
| car | automobil (neut) | o auto | el auto | l'auto (masc) | l'auto (fem) | la vaituthe; moto (?) | la qùérette; la maringote; l'éto (?) | l'auto (masc) | l'auto (fem) | ||||
| tomato[11] | tomată | o tomate | o tomate | el tomate | el tomàquet | la tomate | la tanmate | la tomata | |||||
| edge, border | bordură (fem) | o bordo | la bordure | ||||||||||
| yam[12] | o inhame | el ñame | l'igname (fem) | l'igname (masc) | |||||||||
| Created from adjectival forms | |||||||||||||
| minute | minut | o minuto | o minuto | el minuto | la minute | la minnute | la minute | la minuta | il minuto | ||||
| Derived from verbs | |||||||||||||
| conquest | a conquista | a conquista | la conquista | la conquète | la contchête | le conqùet | la conquista | ||||||
| shelf | a estante | o estante | el estante | l'étagère (fem) | |||||||||
Footnotes
- ↑ In light of Richard V. Teschner's 1986 study ("The Genders of French and Spanish Noun Cognates: Some Statistics and a List" from The Canadian Modern Language Review, Jan. 1986: 256-66), this guesstimate can be revised. Teschner found 14,966 noun cognates between French and Spanish, of which 13,825 have the same grammatical gender; this indicates that 92.38% of French cognates with Spanish share the same gender.
- ↑ This is one of several irregular plural formations in Italian. More common irregular formations in Italian appear with a masculine singular noun ending in -o, which changes to a feminine noun in the plural with its ending in -a. Examples of these "plurali irregolari" are: il braccio-le braccia, il ciglio-le ciglia, il labbro-le labbra, l'uovo (m)-le uova, il dito-le dita, il riso-le risa ('laughter'), l'osso (m)-le ossa, il ginocchio-le ginocchia, etc.
- ↑ Many abstract words with the accusative singular in -orem became feminine in French (e.g., dolor (masc) > douleur (fem)). The nonabstract 'flower' supposedly followed suit, according to historical grammars, which appeal to analogy and abstractness. Polinsky and Van Everbroek suggest that a better explanation would be analogy to nonabstract feminine nouns in -orem that occur with high frequency, e.g., suror 'sister', and uxor 'spouse' (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, Language, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 According to Ralph Penny (A History of the Spanish Language, Cambridge: University Press (2002), 125), Spanish 'calor' and 'color' were usually feminine in Old Spanish but revert to masculine after the Golden Age. Penny also mentions that these two nouns remain feminine in regional speech.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Zenenko states that nouns ending in -orem (in the accusative) are generally masculine in Latin but often develop into feminine nouns in Ibero-Romance. However, in the case of Catalan, these nouns are almost exclusively masculine in the spoken language, with the feminine equivalent appearing more and more in formal writing (“Acerca de la manifestación del género de los sustantivos y adjetivos como categoría grammatical en las lenguas romances ibéricas”, Verba, 10.1 (1983): 231-247).
- ↑ 'Sal' is feminine in Spanish except in the Northwest of Spain (Penny 125).
- ↑ 'Árbol' was often still feminine in Old Spanish (Penny 125).
- ↑ According to Polinsky & Van Everbroek, the traditional view of the development of l'arbre (masc) is the following: when tree names in Latin (which were feminine and ended in -us) became masculine nouns due to their similarities with second declension masculine nouns, Old French arbor became masculine by analogy. The authors, however, believe that a more plausible explanation would be that arbor became masculine around the same time that many nonabstract Latin nouns in -orem became masculine in early Old French. However, the majority of such nouns started as neuter in Latin. For example, Lat. cor > OFr. coeur 'heart' (“Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French”, Language, 79.2 (Jun., 2003): 356-90).
- ↑ 'Origen' was feminine in Latin and Spanish until the Golden Age (Penny 125).
- ↑ Old Spanish 'la val' was feminine (Penny 125).
- ↑ This word is adapted from Nahuatlan tomatl (compare with the Latinate word seen in the Italian pomodoro). For further information, see William A. Read's Louisiana-French (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1931, pg 149).
- ↑ According to Read 1931, the Portuguese and Spanish forms have their origins in West African niami, niambi, and that the African forms derive from Arabic gambah, 'yam-like root' (150). The French and Italian forms are adaptations from Spanish and Portuguese. Interestingly, the Louisiana-French version is yamme and is feminine, not having suffered from Spanish influence.
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